XboxEra's Reviews
The Talos Principle: Reawakened is a fantastic remaster of an already great game. The other two campaigns, “Road to Gehenna” and the new “In the Beginning”, offer additional puzzles that will really wrack your brain on top of being able to hear more from Elohim’s architect and the mother of all that came after.
To say that I’m utterly infatuated with Blue Prince would be an understatement. There are so many layers to the game, I’ve barely even scratched the surface here in terms of how deep this rabbit hole goes, and I’m 70+ plus hours in at the time of writing this review.
Monster Energy Supercross 25 makes quite the noticeable upgrade to this franchise, as the switch to Unreal Engine 5 gives us better looks, better physics, with even various AI and customization improvements that turn this year’s game the best one in the series yet. With the 2025 roster already in place and various promised new content updates throughout the year, AMA Supercross fans should have their hands full – albeit newcomers might still find this peculiar racing style and some of the jank a bit tough to swallow.
South of Midnight is a stunningly beautiful and moving experience. While the gameplay doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, it combines excellent writing and music to move your soul in ways only the best games can. This title is an enormous step-up for Compulsion Games, and I hope this isn’t the last we see from Hazel Flood.
Sports: Renovation is a cool take on the cleaning simulation genre. Its love for sports emanates in just about every corner of the game, across multiple levels. It can be clumsy at times, but it’ll eat up your time like no tomorrow. Put on some headphones, learn about sports, and scrub those venue floors clean.
Breakout Beyond takes a classic and forgets the most important part. You can’t have a brick-breaking game be fun if it doesn’t control well, and this one does not at launch.
With Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark, there’s a solid solo and fun cooperative campaign that offers a good 15 plus hours of action, depending on how often you get lost. Level design has improved since the last game, humour is on-brand with Gal Guardians’ preceding series of games, and movement feels great. Here’s another Metroidvania I can recommend to the newbie and veteran alike. ∎
The First Berserker: Khazan is an excellent action-focused Soulslike. A few minor quibbles and a predictable story aren't enough to hold back one of the most brutally difficult games we've ever played.
Atomfall is a punishingly difficult title, that rewards patience and forethought. This is no “Fallout in England”
I’m really happy with the features that are available in inZOI right now and I’m really looking forward to what will be added in its future. Right now, I hope the developer can resolve some of the more basic but key features such as more hair styles and presets for body characteristics. This is a really charming game (fluffy cats and their ability to help aside) and I’ll be coming to inZOI very often over the coming months for further impressions and to follow the game’s progress. If you’re a life simulation fan, you’ve got to try out inZOI. ∎
AC Shadows is the best game in what has been an incredible series.
Atelier Yumia’s first bout is a fun, open world crafting game that offers more than just clearing icons on a map—its verticality while offering player creativity through movement and housing tools make for a good time. It’s everything its developer has been building towards, and I’ve come away quite impressed with what they’ve got to offer.
Mullet MadJack is excellent in every way. It looks great, sounds even better, and has gameplay for days. It’s a day-one port into Xbox Game Pass. No matter your skill level, there will be something for you to do in this weirdly wonderful title.
Ivy Road brings up the question “is something wrong with me”, something we all might ask ourselves at one point. You’re probably narcissistic if not. It’s a question lots of stories ask and, for many, said stories never really answer the question in any satisfactory way. Wanderstop instead opts to do what we all do when faced with questions like this—trudge about, skirt the line, use lots of adverbs. And for what it’s worth, it’s a refreshingly grounded take on the matter. Yes, something might just be wrong with me and will likely be the death of me. Can something be done about? Maybe. A bit of self-awareness never hurts, though.
FAIRY TAIL 2 is best left for fans and potentially players of the first game. A fun combat system and entertaining character interactions are strained against a linear, dull boss rush adventure with poor performance and weak sidequesting. I don’t think I can call this game an RPG in any capacity. ∎
These yearly sports title releases can be tough to review. I don’t get to live in them like so many people reading this will choose to do. From someone who has reviewed the last few, this one feels like a solid iteration on what last year accomplished. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel so much as refines it to run more smoothly. WWE 2K25 is a big game, with an enormous amount of content on offer whether you’re into the online part of it or not.
Although there were aspects of this game that I had a hard time vibing with, overall, I think this is a fun game if you’re in the mood for some 90’s 90s-style survival horror. And maybe if I was simply in the mood for this type of game, I would have enjoyed it more. It certainly isn’t a bad game, and I hope no one has that takeaway from my review. I think anyone who likes this style of game should absolutely check it out!
Split Fiction is, at its heart, a celebration about how wonderful, imaginative and downright clever videogames can be when they choose to embrace what they are – an art form that thrives on interactivity, creativity, and boundless possibility. Hazelight have proven that once again, when it comes to building distinct experiences that blend storytelling, mechanics, and player agency – they have no equal. Spectacular.
It is however a package that is nice for hardcore fans of the franchise, but also those who want to rediscover the most advanced classic Tomb Raider (IV, that is), the bizarre piece of gaming history that is Angel of Darkness… and also Tomb Raider V, I guess. Sometimes, even missable games are worth a solid remaster.
My advice is: come for the gorgeous psychedelic artstyle and stay for the second half of the game, even if it means muscling through the relatively stale early hours. It may not be the most satisfying metroidvania around, but it certainly is a unique experience that I recommend to fans of the genre.